After setting up a parts warehouse in Atlanta three years ago focusing on supply for the Embraer E-Jet segment with more than 200-part numbers, AerFin is looking at further expansion opportunities in the Americas region.
“The U.S. was a key strategic area for growth pre-pandemic anyway but given how strongly the domestic market performed in the past two years, accelerated growth in the U.S. region has been brought into even sharper focus,” says James Bennett, commercial director at the aircraft end-of-life services specialist.
Bennett estimates the company has around $12 million worth of inventory in the U.S. alone across different locations. “This has expanded into different product lines but principally is Airbus A320 family, Boeing 737NG and Embraer E-Jet,” he says.
AerFin has recently added to its U.S.-based sales team and in the second quarter of this year plans to open an office in Miami. “We’re continuing to move inventory into region to support customer demand,” Bennett adds.
The global aviation supply chain saw plenty of challenges during the pandemic. However, in the Americas region, AerFin saw little in the way of disruption. This was largely in part to the fact that before the pandemic hit, it was already moving inventory into the region and continued to do so during COVID-19. “This meant that we were minimizing international shipments and could rely more on the inventory that we already had in country,” says Bennett.
When pinpointing demand, Bennett says the buoyancy of the U.S. domestic market through the pandemic means demand is coming across multiple market segments. “Since traffic was not as impacted as other regions, confidence in scheduling maintenance was higher and therefore associated MRO activity was more robust than in other regions,” he says. “This is particularly evident on the narrowbody and regional aircraft platforms on which we’re prominently focused.”
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